End of Year Review

Well, it's January 2007 and it's time to look back at a year in the life of our lottie. A chance to reflect on what we've learned, our successes and our failures.

Firstly, if i was marking myself out of 10 for this years efforts and successes i'd have to go for a 4. Maybe a little harsh but looking back i underestimated the amount of work, preparation and dedication required to turn a run down mess of an allotment into something resembling Berryfields!! (I'm currently weighing up the benefits of getting a heroin addiction and getting myself on Monty Don's rehabilitation small holding... For: lose some weight, pick up some gardening tips and learn how to shoplift... Against: spending time in prison, infected heart valves, injecting into my groin...)

When Lisa and i first ventured back onto the allotment in January '06, the first time we'd been there since the destruction of Bonfire Night '05, we surveyed a place that didn't seem capable of producing, er, produce! But as we dismantled the caravan and dug our 4 little beds things started looking positive. When the raddishes arrived we were well on our way to being committed allotmenteers but by the time the mosaic disaster had wiped out all the tomatoes and cucumbers (except for one cucumber!) our heads were down and we felt like we'd already failed. This sense of failure was compounded by the extremely hot and dry start to the summer, exposing our woeful water supply.

The combination of the virus and the weather conditions (and the fact that we'd gutted the house we'd just moved into and we were trying to turn that into something liveable) really hit our motivation... we weeded on occasion, we'd make trips from home to the allotment with the water butt in a wheel barrow every few days and give everything a water but our hearts were bruised and we spent more time sunbathing up there than actually working, which is unforgiveable, there is always work to be done. Then the weather turned and it seemed to rain for months on end... all the excuse to keep our maintainance trips to a minium... so the weeds really did start taking over, the grass grew too long and the crop was barely distinguishable from the weeds...

I guess a year in the life of an allotment is like riding a wave, you've got to stay on top, keep up the momentum, feel the changes in conditions and adapt to retain balance... i think we were overtaken by the wave and the weight of the unrelenting seasons pushed us underwater.

It was our first go and although i sound extremely negative here i am really positive that this time around we'll learn from our mistakes, be more committed, be wiser, cleverer, more savvy, less wasteful, more adventurous and above all, more successfull.